History

The early days

ONSIGHT was founded by Colin Reynolds and Simon Craddock in 1989, both of whom were already established in the broadcast scene. Key early contracts include infrastructure for the Big Breakfast and Framestore's first major technical expansion.

ONSIGHT was originally conceived as a systems and outside broadcast company. Over time ONSIGHT responded to client’s calls for both advice and rental of new equipment. We soon grew into a successful broadcast hire company and found our base in the heart of London’s Soho. Our previous experience of installations stood us in good stead when it came to providing custom hire systems and packages, something the Edit Rental team still does to this day.

ONSIGHT has always been committed to new technology. Even in the early days we were consistently among the first to offer new products and technologies including D1, DigiBeta, Beta SX, D3 and D5.

We were early adopters of high definition. ONSIGHT were the first to offer HD-D5 and the original Varicam. More recently we scored another first with Sony's flagship HDCAM SR format (a year before any other UK company) along with tapeless cameras such as the Sony PDW-700 and Panasonic P2 Varicams.

Moving up

In 2004 we opened ONSIGHT Upstairs, a £2million state-of-the-art HD facility. Today ONSIGHT Upstairs is now ONSIGHT's Lab & Post team. It’s a technical facility to support production, post-production and distribution companies. Many turn to ONSIGHT's Lab & Post team for a helping hand with conforming, QAR, conversion and encoding work, with the technical facility delivering material to clients across the globe. The Lab & Post team at ONSIGHT have built a reputation for troubleshooting in production and post, a status that is only going to grow in a tapeless world.

Axis Films

In early 2009 ONSIGHT acquired Axis Films, a respected HD & 3D camera hire company. Axis Films was founded by the film department of LWT, namely Paul Carter and Geoff Harrison. Over 20 years they built a successful camera and production equipment hire business (based at Shepperton Studios) that shared ONSIGHT's passion for new technologies. Axis Films and ONSIGHT have proved to be a match made in heaven and are now represented by ONSIGHT's Camera Rental team. ONSIGHT's clients now had access to ARRI ALEXA, RED, SI-2K and 3D equipment and experience. Camera Rental clients now have access to ONSIGHT’s additional technical services and expertise, particularly pertinent to those working with the new tapeless formats.

Looking forward

ONSIGHT is fast becoming associated with expert 3D production and 3D post services. Our 3D experience ranges from our Camera Rental team's involvement in the first ever live 3D broadcast to the Post & Lab’s SGO Mistika 3D editing system. With 3D rapidly gaining momentum it would appear that ONSIGHT will once again be the company to turn to for advice, products and solutions for the latest must have format.

To find out how our experience could help your next project call us on 020 7637 0888